Brad Brown

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This is it! Something I’ve been planning and wanting to do for a long LONG time. Episode one of my running podcast. Its funny how circumstances sometimes push you in a certain direction but I am glad they have.  This is going to be a weekly podcast and we are going to be chatting all things running and all levels of running. I specically didn’t want to just do it for seasoned runners but also wanted to include newbies and introduce them to running in a non threatening way. I hope you enjoy what I loved putting together. If you have any input or if there are guests you would like me to interview or specific questions you would like me to pose please pop me an email at podcast@bradbrown.co.za I look forward to hearing from you!

In this weeks episode we chat to:

John Mcinroy (The Founder of Redsock Friday) about the Unogwaja Challenge

Lindsey Parry (From the High Performance Centre at the University of Pretoria) about  hydration packs as well as using gels on the run

Dimitri Kavallineas (Race Organiser of the Deloitte Pretoria Marathon) about the Deloitte Pretoria Marathon

As discussed on the show this week to here is the trailer of the Unogwaja Challenge. You can get hold of John on Twitter at @JohnMcinroy or @TheUnogwaja

A lot of people have been asking for before and after photos form my weight loss efforts for the last year.  To be dead honest I’ve been quite hesitant to post these photo’s because I still want to lose another 3o kilograms. So, below are the before photo’s and a halfway to my goal photo. The first two were taken last June, around the time when I decided to run Comrades. I was 165kg’s and I’m sure you can understand why sports physician was not to keen on me giving Comrades a bash. The last photo was taken last on Thursday the 10^th of June in Soweto for the Fifa 2010 Kick Off Concert. It was taken exactly a year, to the day, after the picture at the Confederations Cup warm up game.
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It has been two and a bit weeks since Comrades 2010 and although my work schedule has been pretty crazy I’ve had some time to digest the events that unfolded on the road to Durban on 30 May 2010. You may or may not know what happened but in a nutshell I missed the cut off at 60km (29km to go) and was pulled off the road. No excuses, I just wasn’t good enough on the day but will be back in 2011 fitter, leaner and stronger to finish off what I started.

In the meantime though its time to set a few new goals for the rest of this year and the first bit of 2011. I have been saying in the build up to Comrades this year that once it was done I would be keen to give a triathlon a bash. I still feel that way but obviously the long term goal is Comrades 2011.

So here is what I’ve come up with as goals between now and 16 June 2011:

1. Complete a couple of the Energade triathlons which start in October.

2. Run the Soweto marathon in November.

3. Ride the 94.7 Cycle Challenge in November (and at the same time try and raise R1 000 000 for the PinkDrive)

4. Complete the half iron man in East London in January

5. Run the Johnson Crane Marathon.

6. Swim the Midmar Mile in February.

7. Run the Vaal Marathon in March

8. Run the Two Oceans and/or Loskop Ultra’s in April

9. Complete the Comrades Marathon in June 2011.

Some of this list may change between now and then but at least it’s out there. I’ve learnt that unless a goal is out there you’re never going to achieve it!

My preparation for the 2010 Loskop Marathon was not ideal. A constantly niggly left foot after the Vaal Marathon 6 weeks earlier never allowed me to do the sort of mileage in the build up that I would have liked to have done. I also decided to change the shoes I was running literally one week before the race. This in hindsight probably wasn’t the wisest decision either. In the week prior to the race with the new shoes my tendonitis cleared up so I decided to risk running the 50kms in the new shoes.

We decided not to sleep over in either Middelburg or at the Loskop Dam the night before as I was on air until 7pm on the Friday evening. We woke up at 2am and were on the road to Middelburg by 2:30am. An early start to what was going to be a long day.

The Start of the 2010 Loskop Marathon

By the time we reached the start I was a bundle of nerves. As it started to get light the 4000 runners began the trek to the loskop dam. Earlier on in the week I had spoken to my good mate Dave Walters from MPower FM in Nelspruit and it turned out MPower FM was the media partner for the race. We were going to try and do a couple of live crossings from the road and the first one was as the gun went.

My goal was to go out until halfway at just under 7 minutes per kilometre until halfway and then take the rest of the race as it comes. It all went according to plan. About 5 km in I got swallowed up by Vlam’s sub 6 hour bus and decided to stick with them for as long as I could. I actually finished the Vaal Marathon in the bus and that’s how I qualified for Comrades 2010. That’s why it wasn’t vital that I finished under 6 hours in this one but the goal was to spend as much time as I could on the road to get a decent long one in the legs.
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I was so looking forward to the Spar Lantern 10km night race last night. It was rated as one of the best 10km races in the country last year. I wanted to take part as I had heard that it was well organised and the atmosphere was amazing with the entire route lit up by lanterns. After last nights race I have no idea why it was rated so highly.

I think why it was so bad last night was mostly because of Read more…

I had the funniest experience last night that I just had to share. I attended the Rockies Road Runners Comrades 2010 panel talk at the Zoo Lake sports grounds. The speakers had a wealth of Comrades experience and knowledge and I thought it would be good to go learn from them. Included on the panel was 9 times Comrades winner Bruce Fordyce, Dan Oliver who is a running coach extraordinaire (He has also completed 19 Comrades marathons himself) and well known and highly respected sports physician Dr Jon Patricios. Don Oliver opened the meeting breaking down his training programme and Bruce Fordyce wrapped things up with a bit of a what to expect session and opened the floor for a bit of a Q&A session which was very entertaining and informative.

The amusing bit of the evening was the talk by Dr Jon Patricios Read more…

Another week closer to Comrades 2010! Only 18 more weeks to go. That is starting to scare the living daylights out of me. My training is going well, but I can’t help but feel I’m not doing enough. In the January edition of Runners World mention is made that I should be able to do Read more…

Berg en Dal 15km Night Race Route

The only downside of the route was Read more…

What a great start to the new year. My training has been going really well and I feeling fit and fab (although the foot is still a bit niggly). I think one of the benefits of running through December is that by the time January is in full swing you have hit the ground running and there is no need to try and play catch up. I noticed yesterday on Twitter ( You can follow me here)  a few people had mentioned that there were 140 days left to go until Comrades 2010. Someone else mentioned that Read more…

December has been one silly month! I am actually glad it is over to tell you the honest truth. I’ve been pretty slack updating you on the progress of my training but at least I haven’t been slack on the training. I seem to be recovering pretty well from my foot injury (although it has been playing up a bit the last couple of days again). I’ve managed to get a few 10km runs in the last two weeks which has been good preparation I think for the Read more…